


Something to Lose (For Once In My Life)

by Tricochet



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: M/M, Possessed!Gary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-08-30 02:51:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16756435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tricochet/pseuds/Tricochet
Summary: The demon pursuing Constantine catches up with Gary instead.





	Something to Lose (For Once In My Life)

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by http://somebodyhelpthenotdeadfreds.tumblr.com/post/179576318064/personal-theory-for-lot-s4-gary-becomes-by

Gary knocks on John’s door. He waits for a second, then pushes it open. It looks just like it had the other times Gary had… visited. Too much like it. John’s trenchcoat is thrown carelessly across the back of a chair. Gary carefully steps over the spilled remnants of various saints and reaches into the jacket. He finds the tail of some unknown reptile and what looks like a fortune from a fortune cookie. 

Gary looks around. John would never leave his jacket. Gary calls out for him, pacing through the rooms. His sheets are unmade, as usual. Gary picks a cigarette butt off the ground. It’s still warm. 

“John? You here?”

Gary pushes the bathroom door open. There’s condensation on the shattered mirror. 

“Some bloody messages, anyone?” Gary asks quietly. 

He isn’t prepared for the sight of the letters scratched. 

“There’s no way out, John Constantine.”

The message fades as Gary looks at it. John can’t have been gone for long. He was either taken or left in a hurry. Either way, Gary has to find him. 

 

 

Gideon leads Gary to a car dealership three days in the future. He finds John out cold, hand clutched around a silver-coated knife. 

“John! Wake up! John!” 

Gary kneels on the ground and shakes him. His hand touches John’s shoulder.

“Gary?” John mumbles. He looks wrecked. “Squire, you can’t be here. There’s nothing that’s going to stop them from finding me. I’ve run enough. You can’t go down with me. You have to run before he gets here.”

“John? What’s happening?”

“They’re coming for me,” John says. His voice is shakier than Gary is used to hearing. He looks like he’s struggling to breathe. He stares up at Gary. 

“Who’s after you? We can find a way to stop them-”

“These demons can’t be drowned.” John starts coughing. “You’ve only got one way out of this, and that’s if you run.”

“What about you?”

“There’s no way out of this for me, squire. I knew when I met you that I didn’t have long left. Thank you for making it better. But you don’t want to be here when I die.”

“You aren’t dying,” Gary says.

“I appreciate you saying that, but-”

“You aren’t dying,” Gary repeats, except there’s an edge to the voice that isn’t his. John looks up at him. Gary’s petrified eyes meet his, but his mouth isn’t moving.

“No,” John yells. “Stay away from him, demon!” 

“You were right, John Constantine,” the demon says, through Gary’s puppet body. “This one should have stayed away from you. Then he could have lived.” 

“No!” John screams. He pushes off the ground and manages to get on his feet. “What’s it going to take for you to leave him? Do you want my life? Because I can arrange that. An animal sacrifice, I can arrange. Just let him go.”

The petrified expression across Gary’s features is undoubtedly him. He visibly tenses and stares into John’s eyes. His voice shakes. 

“I have a message. He says that they’re coming for you, John Constantine. No matter where you go, they’re gonna run you down.” 

“They don’t have to come for me. I’m right here,” John says, addressing the demon inhabiting Gary’s body. “We can settle this, just us. No need to bring anyone else into this.” And for God’s sake, not him. John doesn’t even care about his own life at this point, but Gary’s is too valuable. 

Gary squints like he always does when he’s listening. 

“Uh, he says no. Didn’t really give a reason, just ‘I’m a demon, I can do what I want’.”

“What do you want from me?” 

“Well, if you’re asking, I was kinda hoping to go out on a real date with you- oh, you meant the demon. Uh, as far as I can tell, the demon says there’s nothing you can do.”

 

 

John spits up blood. Hunting a conjoined frog for a spell was not how he had pictured spending his night.

He dives through the reeds for it. It writhes as he grabs it.

“Sorry, mate. You’re coming with me.”

John sets up the spell right in the middle of the marsh. He doesn’t have the time to find somewhere else. He finds his salt candle and throws the frog in the center.

The frog tries to jump out, and that triggers the spell. John sees a pillar of blood spray the inner walls of the shield.

“I will never stop hunting you until I get him back,” John snarls at the demon. The blood drips to the ground. John can see it clearly.

“I have a message,” the deep voice growls from Gary’s mouth. Gary’s goofy expression is all gone, replaced with glowing eyes and snarl of pure anger. “From him. He says he loves you, John Constantine. And he trusts you.”

John reaches out for Gary, knowing what’s about to come next. The demon picks up the frog, breaking the boundary. It walks Gary over to the edge and jumps. John sees Gary’s body tense as the demon lets go of him, but it’s too late. It’s Gary who meets John’s eyes as he falls. 

John yells, but he can’t hear himself. The only scream he hears is Gary’s. 

 

 

“There’s no cause of death,” John overhears Ava saying. “As far as we can tell, he hit the ground without a scratch. The autopsy hasn’t happened yet, but-”

“There won’t be an autopsy,” John interrupts. “The demon left him undamaged so he can use him for possession again. The demon still wants something. That means he has a chance. I need to see him.”

John pushes the door open. Nate startles from where he was sitting next to Gary.

“Move, mate,” John says quickly. 

Nate jumps out of the way.

“What are you doing?”

“Sort of a reverse exorcism. A summoning, if you will.”

John starts to scatter the ash and salt he’d mixed. He keeps the area directly around Gary’s body clean. He slits his palm and drips blood over the floor. 

It starts to smell. Nate gags. The incense John lights from his cigarette doesn’t help. 

“Uh, is this going to work?”

“Not to worry, mate. Get Sharpie.”

Nate runs out the door. John shuts it behind him and locks it.

“This room is sealed. If something goes wrong, do not open it.”

John throws the candles, lighting them in the air. They form a ring of fire around the salt. 

He starts chanting. The fire dies abruptly, then burns again. 

John shoves his hand forward with one last Latin word. Gary’s body flies backward, hitting the edge of the invisible barrier.

“I know you, demon. I know you have something you want. And I want you to know I am fully prepared to make a deal with the devil to save him.”

“A deal? What kind of deal?”

“If you want sacrifices, I can get you those. The blood of saints? I have boxes in my apartment. You want power? My firstborn child? I can offer you that.”

“I don’t want your firstborn, John Constantine.”

“Tell me what you want, and I’ll find a way to make it happen.”

“Do you remember casting me into the realm of demons?”

John clicks his tongue. “Hm. Yes, now I do. That’s why you hate me.”

“I want to be free of the constraints you placed upon me.”

“You would, wouldn’t you? Would you prefer anything over this?”

“What are you proposing?”

“You are allowed to remain in this realm forever.”

“In what vessel?”

“The only vessel you’re going to get. It can speak. It can walk.”

“And I leave this body?”

“Alive and undamaged,” John says. The blood on the ground starts to boil.

“Why should I?”

“Because I’m using the last chip I have to bargain. I just tied my life force to his to keep you contained. There’s no way to get out in his form or without being contained in this other vessel, even after I die. If either of us try to leave with him in this condition, we all die. There’s an alternative. You can stay in this form forever, confined to this circle with me stuck here with you. Or you could take my option.”

“I will, to the best of my ability, leave this man unhurt,” the demon says. It holds its fingers so John can see they aren’t crossed.

“I will restore you to another vessel, one that will be allowed to remain on Earth with the freedoms of movement and language.”

The demon extends Gary’s hand, spitting onto the ground. John makes another cut in his palm and squeezes his blood. 

John starts to chant again. The demon joins him.

John reaches into his jacket and pulls out a Beebo doll. He throws it over the line of salt. 

He sees Gary’s fingernail shatter. The Beebo starts to move unnaturally. It steps out of the broken circle. 

John becomes aware of Ava and Nate banging on the door. He doesn’t pay attention. 

“Gary, come on, love. Wake up.”

Gary’s fingernail is bleeding where the demon had left his body. 

“Gary!”

John holds Gary in his lap, cradling the man’s head against his chest. The demon had made a promise to try its best, but maybe it hadn’t worked. 

He feels Gary’s muscles tense under his fingers. Gary’s first breath sounds like music.

“Gary, say something, love.”

“My finger blew up? At least it wasn’t the other nipple.”

The Beebo doll is focused. Its eyes are screwed up into its head as it talks in its Beebo voice. “I’ll have to do some rewiring, but this will work. He’s fine. Can I have my part of the deal?”

John nods and puts out the candles, unlocking the boundary. The doll moves, limping as it gets used to this new mode of walking. It reaches for the doorknob and jumps for it. It can’t quite reach. John sets Gary down and goes to unlock it. The Beebo demon pushes it open and runs out. John hears Nate and Ava yell. 

“Let him go, mates,” John calls to them. Ava is the first one in. 

“What happened?” Gary says from the floor. 

John runs back to him and gets on his knees. “Squire. You’re back.”

“Yeah, I’m awake. What happened to my finger?”

“It blew up when I got the demon out.”

“Oh, right. The demon. It’s gone?” 

“I made a bargain to stick it in an old Beebo.”

“In return for my soul?”

John nods. “How much do you remember from when you were out?”

“I think I fell down,” Gary says. 

“Can you walk?” Ava says. Gary strains, then shakes his head. John picks him up. 

“Hey there, buddy,” Nate says. 

“My Time Bro!” Gary says happily. John squints, trying not to be jealous. 

“Where should I put him?” John asks.

“Just have Gideon fix up his finger and take him home,” Ava says. “I’m glad you’re back, Agent.”

“Aww. You care about me,” Gary says. John frowns some more.

“Alright. Let’s deal with that finger, squire.”

 

 

A finger is surprisingly easy for Gideon to fix. John brings Gary back to his apartment, sets him down, and heads for the door. 

“Where are you going?” Gary asks sleepily.

“Somewhere that when the next demon comes after me, you won’t get hurt.”

“John,” Gary pouts. “I’m fine.”

“Another person I love died. I saw you fall, and I saw you dead. Everything I touch is poisoned, Gary. I have something to lose now, and I’m not letting you fall again.”

“You love me?” Gary says quietly. John huffs and lights his cigarette. “John, if you’re poison, then I’m already gone. But I don’t think you are.”

“You got hurt because of me.”

“I got hurt because I work for the Time Bureau. It’s not like I’m safe in this line of work anyway. I might as well enjoy it while I can, right?”

John turns around and moves to sit next to Gary. “I guess I can stay for one night. Just until I’m sure you’re safe.”

“Alright,” Gary says. “Just get in the shower first. You smell like blood and smoke.”

“Whatever you say, squire.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've been pretty disappointed with the previous few episodes and kind of how Constangreen ended. However, I don't think they're really over. I think there has to be some drama before they actually get together on-screen. Considering when Adam (the real MVP) posted that picture of him and Matt, it seems unlikely that the writers just wrote them entirely off-screen and then broke them up.


End file.
